The fight actually marks a rematch between the two fighters. Hieron earned a unanimous-decision victory over Ellenberger at a 2006 IFL event. It spoiled Ellenberger’s perfect 12-0 record at the time.

Hieron currently is on an 11-1 run, and the lone defeat came via split decision to Bellator champion Ben Askren in an October title fight. Due to differences with company officials, Hieron then parted ways with Bellator and signed with the Texas-based Legacy Fighting Championship. This past month, he earned a second-round submission win over Romario da Silva in his promotional debut. A source told MMAjunkie.com that Legacy officials, who recently have sent many of their fighters to the UFC, let Hieron out of his contract to follow suit.

Hieron, a former NCAA Division I wrestler and IFL champion, fought twice in the UFC; he suffered a TKO loss to now-champ Georges St-Pierre in 2004 at UFC 46, and a cut prompted a defeat to Jonathan Goulet at UFC Fight Night 2 a year later.

Meanwhile, Ellenberger most recently suffered his first loss since a split-decision defeat to Carlos Condit in his UFC debut in September 2009. After that setback, Ellenberger went on a six-fight win streak with four knockout victories. The highlights of the two-year-plus run included a 53-second knockout of Jake Shields this past September and a “Fight of the Night” unanimous-decision win over Diego Sanchez in February.

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